1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a screen display method and screen display device for executing an exhibition match, in a sports game, and a storage medium for storing a game program for displaying screens required in an exhibition match. Moreover, the present invention relates to a game device for executing an exhibition match.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, games played on this kind of game device include various types of games, such as simulation games, role-playing games, fighting games, puzzle games, and the like. In addition, games relating to sports which will be called sports games are also divided into a wide variety of games, such as golf games, baseball games, soccer games, basketball games, horse racing games, and the like. All of such sports games are widely sold in a market and have considerably become popular among game users.
In manufacturing these sports games, it often happens that a technique is adopted such that rules of real sports are simulated to enhance realism of a sports game of that type. This technique of manufacturing the sports games is helpful to have a lot of people take an interest in the sports games even if such people are not interested in the sports games themselves.
More specifically, abilities and other features of teams or characters involved in a game are reflected by referring to real teams, players, individual merits and performance records, and the like. The resultant sports games are played under rules which are close to the rules of the real game. Consequently, these sports games closely imitate real sport, and hence they have an advantage in that they also appeal to people who actually play sports, but show little interest in games played on a device.
On the other hand, there are also many sports competitions wherein an exhibition match is played when the main sports match has finished, or when there is a rest period during the game. In an exhibition match of this kind, the players taking part are able to play freely without adhering to normal rules, and therefore it is possible for the general spectators to enjoy special plays made by the players, which they cannot normally witness. Consequently, these exhibition matches, and the like, which are not played in a consistent manner, are extremely popular amongst general spectators.
However, a further aspect of these exhibition matches is that since they are often played by disregarding standard rules, and hence lack consistency, they are difficult to incorporate into conventional methods for simulating real sports games.
For example, basketball is one sport which is very popular in the United States of America, and in particular, basketball games played in the NBA (U.S. Professional Basketball League) have many fans across the whole world. In some of these NBA basketball games, exhibitions called dunk contests were carried out in the past. Furthermore, entertaining exhibitions called three-point shoot-outs have often been played during NBA all-star matches.
Herein, a dunk contest has been performed as an exhibition match. In the dunk contest, players have competed with one another in the artistry, excitement and a level of difficulty of dunk shots performed by pushing the ball down through the basket. On the other hand, in three-point shoot-outs which are being now performed as exhibition matches, players compete with one another in the number of balls they successfully shoot into the basket from outside the three-point line marked on the basketball court.
In these entertaining exhibition matches, when artistry, excitement, level of difficulty, and the like, are assessed and marked visually in a dunk contest, for instance, then the visual assessment standards will vary between different individuals assessing the contest, and hence it is difficult to devise a dunk contest game which can be played on a game device, and in fact, no examples of such games for a game device currently exist.
Moreover, since the very nature of this type of exhibition match is a contest that takes place in a peripheral manner with respect to the actual basketball match, or the like, then if a game for such an exhibition match is to be devised, desirably, it should be appended as a mini-game which is supplementary to the game relating to the actual sports match.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a screen display method and device whereby an exhibition match played as entertainment in conjunction with an actual sports match can be formed into a thrilling and interesting exhibition game involving only simple operations by the user.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a screen display method and device whereby an exhibition match in basketball can be formed into a game which increases the user""s interest.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a screen display method and device whereby a dunk contest exhibition match in basketball can be formed into a game.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a computer-readable and writable storage medium storing a dunk contest game which is thrilling and interesting, and does not require a high level of skilled experience.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a storage medium storing the aforementioned dunk contest game in the form of a mini-game in a main basketball game.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a video game device whereby the aforementioned dunk contest game can be executed.
In order to achieve the aforementioned objects, the following types of invention are provided as a screen display method, storage medium for storing a game program and game device, for implementing a game based on a ball game, which includes a shooting action in the rules thereof, and displaying said action on a display device. Basketball and soccer are examples of the aforementioned ball game which includes a shooting action in the rules thereof, but the game in question does not necessarily have to involve a ball, and also includes, for example, sports using a puck, such as ice hockey, or the like.
In the screen display method, storage medium storing a game program and video game device according to the present invention, operations that are to be input by the player are specified as a task operation, which is displayed on a screen for a prescribed period of time and then erased. The player makes note of the task operation while it is being displayed on the screen, and then enters an input operation using an input device, once the game device has entered an input receiving state. A shooting action scene is determined on the basis of the task operation and the input operation, and a situation is displayed wherein a player represented by a character in the game performs a shooting action. Here, the shooting action scene is determined not only on the basis of a two-value judgement which simply indicates whether the shooting action is successful of unsuccessful, but it may also incorporate results which are divided into multiple stages, such as the artistry of the shooting action in a dunk contest, for example.
In this way, in the present invention, the player has to note and enter the task operation displayed, and hence the player is not required to remember a complex series of operations.
In one example, the aforementioned task operation may involve pressing buttons on an input device provided with n types of button, according to a sequence of one combination involving r buttons (where n and r are natural numbers and any button may be used more than once). One combination may be generated at each determining step. Moreover, r may also be specified according to a predetermined level of difficulty.
When displaying a shooting scene, it is possible to enhance the sense of realism for the player if different animation sequences are displayed depending on the judgement results. In this case, it is also possible to display different animation sequences depending not only on the judgement results, but also on the level of difficulty. Moreover, it is also possible to display different animation sequences depending on the period of time required from the start to completion of the input operation receiving process and the degree to which the input operation matches the task operation.